It’s our last week of MKMMA and I’m at a slight loss for words. (Which is not helpful when one is supposed to write a blog post. In fact, it’s very inconvenient.)

How odd to think that this is the last week. I’ve done a lot of self-discovery, been inspired and encouraged by so many people just by reading their blogs, I’ve fallen down hard and gotten back up, I’ve…been growing up…and I am so happy to have been a part of this experience.

What a journey it’s been! When we first started back in September, I was a bit hesitant about “a whole SIX months!!!”. But I shrugged that small objection away, reminding myself that it would be over before school ended, so it was really not a big deal. Six months later, 26 blog posts later, and I…actually…want it…to continue. Whoa! I expected to be really happy when it was over and I had finished this course and it would have changed my life, blah blah blah. What I didn’t expect was that this course and everything we’ve learned is to be a lifelong journey – the six months was just the start…in fact, one might say, just preparation. Mark and Davene, Trish and the guides gave us the tools. And! – we have been changing (or, in some aspects, not changing – because we all fall down at times) our lives.

I feel like I’m only now realizing just how great this Master Key Experience has been. Duh, Arielle – you’re at the end – no wonder! But really…it sounded great when I first started, it felt pretty great when I figured out my DMP…but now that I’m at the end of the course and I see some of the changes in myself and I can look back and see the progressions of everything? – COOL. It is great.

This week my Franklin focus was “taking initiative”. I’m getting really good at being the observer! Every day I’ve been filling my spaces with lots of dots! Yesterday I was so proud of myself because I actually observed three things in one action. Allow me to relate the story…I went to our favourite local Italian restaurant to pick up some food. When I got there, one of the waitresses asked if I needed help taking the food to the car because there were three bags. Since there were salads, pasta, etc., I gratefully accepted the offer (with inward regrets that alas, I was not related to an octopus and therefore could not provide enough limbs to carry the food…kidding) On the 30 second walk to the car, we had a nice little chat about the weather and a couple other simple little pleasantries. Before MKMMA, I would probably have said to myself, Oh, that was really nice of her to help me! But now – Hey, she took the initiative to offer and help me, she was kind, and she certainly had a pleasing personality…this is SO cool that I can identify these things!!!

I’d like to conclude with a couple of thoughts about love. (I’m absolutely NOT talking about romantic love – just “regular” love. There’s my “DISCLAIMER” for those of you who might have begun to roll your eyes at a teenager discussing love… 😛 ) I think it was an absolutely beautiful moment in last week’s webinar when Mark said that our true nature is love…that love is the reason for our existence, the source of the spirit, and worth both living for and dying for.

It was a bit of an “aha” moment for me with my worldview…because the Bible says that God is love, and also that we’re created in His image…so it makes sense that our true nature would be love! 🙂 Another thing the Bible says…”Love your neighbour as yourself.” And of course, Scroll II says “Henceforth I will love all mankind.”

I think C.S. Lewis puts it splendidly: “…we might try to understand exactly what loving your neighbour as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself? Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently “Love your neighbour” does not mean “feel fond of him” or “find him attractive.”…For a long time I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life-namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things…”

And how do we love our family? Our friends? We don’t necessarily feel love (noun) for them all the time (although it’s wonderful when we do, of course), but we do continue to love (verb) them.

Every single press release that I’ve read has service to others included in it – whether it’s helping children, publishing a profound book, or providing for family…it’s service. It’s love – as a verb. And I’ve been pondering this question…I wonder…could we take this love of ours, this true nature of ours, this love that we feel for our family and friends, this love that we show for our family and friends…could we take that and not only include it in our daily lives with “our neighbours” (Bible) and “each whom we meet” (Scroll II)…but could we also channel that love into our DMP’s? Into our futures? Into the lives that we will touch? Because we all touch other people’s lives in some way…can we let it be through love? Can we shape our own lives through love? Can we take the pain that comes with the love (for love is caring A LOT, and when you care, you open yourself up to getting hurt) and continue to strive? To push for greatness? To overcome the new obstacles? To go and believe and never stop because there’s never an option to give up when you love something…whether it’s your mother or your daughter, your father or your son, your friend or your cousin…music or writing or doctoring…there’s a pull to love your family and friends, and there’s a pull to love your dreams – your DMP – your future life! Can we all feel the pull and go and love it and do it?!

To quote the trolls in the movie Frozen, “…love’s a force that’s powerful and strange.”

O readers, I have a confession to make. Over the past month, I have developed an addiction. Please, if you know of such a thing as a GICAA association, that’s where I belong. (GICAA, by the way, stands for Gratitude Index Card-Aholics Anonymous) 😀 I finally realised the depth of this addiction when I began to panic when I saw that I was getting low on index cards, and when I was overjoyed beyond belief when my dad bought some more. It’s serious. It’s a peptide addiction, people…of the best kind. LOL. Joking aside, I really am enjoying the gratitude cards. I think they’re one of my favourite things to do every day. I keep putting the “little” “everyday” blessings on there…like hot water, coloured pens, email, spring coming, family, teachers, students, honesty, love, index cards (yes I really did put down index cards hahaha)…but it’s the “little” “everyday” blessings that make me smile…and I think it’s wonderful to be grateful for our daily lives – it makes living in the present easier, rather than waiting for something BIG! to happen.

Also! This week, my Franklin trait to focus on has been “Pleasing Personality”. I put this down as my best trait of all of them…which was kind of ironic because earlier this week I was acting a bit grouchy. What was funny, though, was that when I was being grouchy, it was on the day when I’m at home all day, so when I caught myself…Hang on – I have to put in some dots today, and I won’t really be interacting with anybody other than my family…so I’d better shape up so I can make a dot for myself! That helped my attitude greatly 🙂

I liked that this week we kind of had two topics for our sit exercise: 1) concentrating on man being a spirit with a body; and 2) the soul of money is service. I haven’t had any insights to share on these two topics, but I think that just concentrating on them and keeping them in the back of my mind will be great – just for life in general.

This week has been rather lovely. It seems that all the “college stuff” is finally beginning to come together – nothing big has happened, and no scholarships yet, but just the process seems to be finally getting moving. Finally! I’m having some fun after all my (and my parents’) hard work 😀

I’ve been in a marvelous mood all week – I’m not super happy all the time; I do have some “down-ish” moments, but I’ve been…delighted…quite often this week. I’m not entirely sure why – perhaps it’s a mixture of spring and warmer weather and MKMMA stuff? – but I love it!

This week my attribute to focus on is “well-organized”. I think that other than the “kindness” week, this has been my best week for noticing the word. And! – this is also the week where I have been most successful in manifesting it in my life. I’ve been very organized this week! 🙂 So after we get through our 13 weeks with these 13 words, I’m definitely going to start over and keep working through the Franklin exercise!

Something happened on Wednesday that seems, on the surface, rather small – so small that I wasn’t even sure whether I should bother to mention it – but enough to bug me into sharing it in this post. After dance class, I went to the coffee shop to get a snack. I had brought an apple with me, but since I needed to hit Staples before going home to dinner, I wanted to get something else to eat. I bought a bag of chips, and was eyeing the chocolate chip muffin under the counter. That muffin was looking absolutely delicious – but…I didn’t really need it (since I had the apple and the chips), and I also knew that I should conserve my money (especially since I had longer dance class in a couple of days and would probably be even hungrier after that one! 😀 ). So, I decided not to purchase the muffin at that time. Another thing that I had been eyeing for the past couple of weeks at that coffee shop was the cinnamon roll. Well, a few minutes after deciding against buying the muffin, the barista came over and asked me if I would like…a cinnamon roll! Nobody had bought it for the day, and she was going to throw it away, so she offered it to me – for free! So I was very happy that I hadn’t bought the chocolate chip muffin. Now, the question is, did I maybe have the idea of the cinnamon roll in my subconscious enough so that it tugged and attracted my desired result?…or, maybe, the barista is just really nice naturally. Or maybe both? – I don’t know. I wasn’t entirely sure whether to write about it – but then I remembered that, according to Einstein,

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

So I’m choosing to see this as a miracle. It certainly felt like one!

This week, after making my way through Emerson’s essay on Self Reliance, I began re-reading all the Master Key lessons, starting with Lesson 1 and working my way through. I’m not quite finished yet, but it’s been really interesting going back and reviewing. Some of it I remember, and some of it I’ve forgotten and then I think ooooh – good reminder; I needed that! And something that intrigues me has also been happening: when we were first reading these lessons, I highlighted the parts that I thought were most interesting or found most insightful. This week, reading some of those highlighted parts, I’ve thought to myself, Why did I highlight that? That’s pretty obvious…why didn’t I highlight this part? And I find some other sentence or phrase that I didn’t pick up on before, and the parts that I highlighted seem less amazing to me. I guess that shows that I’ve learned and internalized a great deal!

It’s also been nice creating my own topics for my sits this week. Practically every week, we’ve had an assigned focus from the Master Key lesson for our sits, so I haven’t really had a “free” sit. In one of my sits this week, I decided to trace my life from now until…well, as far as I could until the end of my 15 minutes. So I envisioned myself crying from joy from getting a full ride scholarship from my top university, going to that university, working in the summers, saving up money, studying in the school year, going from my dorm room to my classes and back (it helps that I’ve been on that campus a lot 🙂 ), practicing piano in the practice rooms, etc…then starting my life after college graduation, teaching piano, getting my own car and apartment…gradual steps…at the end of my sit I was having a LOT of fun! Ohhhhmygosh my life is going to be SOOOO awesome!!!!!

Yet another wonderful thing that’s been going on this week is my gratitude cards. I had been doing them in the nights before I went to bed, but sometimes in the rush to get to sleep I’ve forgotten to do them, so to make up for not doing them on Sunday night I did them on Monday morning. I’ve continued doing them in the mornings throughout the week, and it’s been really nice to start off my day focusing on things/people that I’m thankful for. If for some reason I wake up in a less-than-optimal mood, I instantly get in a good mood after writing those cards. And two or three times this week I’ve actually done them in the morning and the night – because it’s felt like three things I’m grateful for just isn’t enough…or I had more than one positive experience that day that I want to record.

And last, but not least: although I’ll need to reread the essay on Self Reliance several times before I can fully grasp and remember Emerson’s points, I did see today, at the very end, this sentence that is absolutely splendid:

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”

Also today, in my French class we were assigned this memory verse to recite (in French, of course, but here it is in English):

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6

I think that Emerson and the Bible are saying very similar things here. If nothing can bring us peace but ourselves, surely that means that we must be content with whatever we have?…because it’s ourSELVES, not our THINGS (or circumstances) that truly matter? And if we can relate “the triumph of principles” and “godliness” to each other – that sort of lifestyle is the one that will bring us peace.

My French teacher asked the class for our ideas on why “godliness with contentment is great gain”. I’ll put here the answer I gave her: I think the “great gain” part comes from the fulfillment and happiness that comes from being content with the things you HAVE, and then also, by being godly, being content with who you ARE.

I know that for me, “the triumph of principles” is really good for times when I’ve had to make a difficult decision – a decision that I really don’t even want to make, or one that I would rather choose the “easier” way out…but when I make the decision based on morals/principles, even though I may not like that decision, I do have the internal satisfaction of knowing that I chose to do the right thing. (And sometimes that’s the only thing you can hang on to!)

Has anyone ever heard that tongue twister “I thought a thought but the thought I thought was not the thought I thought I thought”? That used to be my favourite tongue twister.

This week, though, with our newest Master Key lesson, I wonder if that funny little twister might have a bit of wisdom. In the introduction to Part 22, Haanel writes that “…thoughts are spiritual seeds, which, when planted in the subconscious mind, have a tendency to sprout and grow, but unfortunately the fruit is frequently not to our liking.”

Also, in sentence 7, “We are all using this (mental) power every minute. The trouble is most of us are using it unconsciously and thus producing undesirable results.”

I’m sure most of us imperfect people have had odd thoughts that we’ve allowed ourselves to dwell upon, yes? You walk down the street and you see someone whose appearance, for some reason (clothing, hair, weight, anything) is strange/odd/weird/not great/bad in your opinion. You have some sort of thought, like “Oh my gosh WHY do people dye their hair purple?” This type of thought could be just an observation, or it could be a passing state of honest puzzlement…or, it could be a judgemental thought. (Please note that this is just an example and that I have nothing against people in possession of purple hair 😀 ) Now, if we allow ourselves to dwell on this thought, eventually we will attract other such thoughts. “…every impression is a seed which will sink into the subconscious and form a tendency; the tendency will be to attract other similar thoughts and before we know it we shall have crop which must be harvested.” So soon, walking down the street, we spot more people with purple hair and become increasingly incensed at the widespread trend of this unnatural hue. You thought a thought (“Omg WHY do people dye their hair purple”), but the thought you thought, was not the thought you thought you thought (simple, with no far-reaching consequences).

For the record, I’ve had the unpleasant experience of having people point out other people whose appearance is somehow “objectionable”…not only does it mess up your own thinking and put you on a negative focus, but it also draws surrounding people into that negative focus.

I’ve often had the thought that “You know, my thoughts are my own, so I’m going to think whatever I want.” Fine. But! That was from the standpoint where I didn’t think that my thoughts -just my thoughts – had much power. Now that I’ve learned that they do, I’m trying to regulate them more. So this week I’ve been trying to, for about five minutes every day, go through an imaginary day (or part of a day) of my future self. At first it was kind of difficult, because I have to imagine my house and piano and surrounding areas, etc., but the longer I continue the easier it gets.

The first time that I read lesson 22 this week, during my first sit of the week, I got really excited. The lesson talks a lot about healing and disease and thoughts controlling physical health and all that…but what I really latched on to was the power of thought in creating oneself. “We are all using this power every minute.” So every minute, every moment, I am creating myself. Every minute I can examine my thoughts and figure out what “me” I am creating. Am I creating someone who I want to become? Am I creating a loving, wise person? Or am I creating someone who makes bad decisions? Who am I creating? That. Is. Amazing.

At this point in time, I’ve been feeling rather…distracted – there’s so much going on in my life, in this last semester of high school. Auditions, scholarships, schoolwork, etc. My brain feels like it’s swimming around in a crazy sea quite often 😀

So it’s rather a fight to hang on to my MKMMA drills…but it’s ok – I just need to make sure to plan…”people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan”…yes that’s me sometimes!

But! The rather exciting thing that has been happening a little bit over the past couple of weeks (but I only noticed it this week) is I’m discovering the power of focus. Now, you can “focus” on something for half an hour and make some progress…but maybe you’re not completely focused. There’s still other “stuff” floating around in your mind, distracting you at least subconsciously.

Several times now when I’ve been feeling distracted and have started using the Law of Substitution (ok, why don’t I focus another problem – since I can actually do something about it – and try and find a solution), I focus for a minute or two on one particular problem/instance that I need to figure out. In that short space of time, I can be ENTIRELY focused, and the solution or insight comes very quickly and very clearly. I end up with the thoughts I need, plus a sense of amazement at my powerful brain 🙂 It’s really cool!

I really like the Master Key lesson this week. The power of thought is so real…as it says in sentence 28, “Every time you think you start a train of causation which will create a condition in strict accordance with the quality of the thought which originated.”

That goes right along in line with “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford.

Everything depends on thoughts…for example, if something is impossible in your mind, will you even attempt it? No – you will put it out of your mind because it’s not relevant and you have a ton of other things to think about. The only way that science has progressed so far is because scientists have opened their minds to consider things that were previously thought impossible…for example, traveling in space.

I also love this sentence: We must “be” before we can “do” and we can “do” only to the extent to which we “are,” and so what we do will necessarily coincide with what we “are” and what we are depends upon what we “think.

Whatever we think about manifests itself, right? Think positively and we will be positive…think happy and we’ll be happy…and of course think negatively and we will be negative. The Law of Growth! 🙂

Because of all these things…dare to want. Dare to dream. Dare to think and ponder upon your wishes! Dare to believe that you can be what you will to be!

Scroll V is great and I love it. But sometimes you have to balance planning for the future with living as if today is the last day of your life. You have to make good decisions for the future you, even if maybe you wouldn’t bother with them on the actual last day of your life. That’s probably the part that says that “The duties of today I shall fulfill today.”

Keeping your future self and goals and DMP in mind help you to make wise decisions. Even if you’re not exactly sure what your future self would do, you know what would or would not benefit that future self.

Self-centeredness can be beneficial…we can only control ourselves, after all.

The “I” or mind is powerful – we must both be careful with it and make use of it. We were created with a mind, a soul, a body, and a heart. I’ll eliminate talking about the soul for now as I don’t really have much insight about that. But the mind and heart control the body, so let’s eliminate that as well. The mind and heart can be in tune sometimes, or out of tune, but as we often connect the heart with feelings – we know from all our study in MKMMA that thoughts produce feelings which produce beliefs (etc.)…thoughts come from the mind – therefore the mind controls the feelings and from that a good bit of the heart. Now, the thing that controls everything else must be our main focus – so use the mind wisely. Let the conscious be the “watchman at the gate” for the subconscious, and you will thus create the circumstances you want and manifest the life you want.

I LOVE the new scroll!!! It’s so wonderful. Also, I’m back on track with my MKMMA duties/services/good stuff to do 🙂 So I’m feeling quite great.

I really appreciate Scroll V. Today is my last day, so I’m not going to waste it – quite the contrary: I’ll drink every minute to its full! I haven’t quite gotten the knack of savouring every moment yet, but it’s coming! I love applying this scroll – it’s so much fun, and also so motivating. It encourages me to make sure to make time for my MKMMA stuff and not slack off – that’s one reason why I’ve gotten back on track this week.

It also helps me to be more loving. Because really, if I’m not going to be around tomorrow, then the minor everyday irritations are really just that – minor! BUT – the little good things – like taking the time to listen, or to spend a moment with someone, or a random “I love you” – those add up…those make a difference. If we die tomorrow our families won’t really remember how we irritated them, but how we took that extra second or two to smile, or engage in conversation instead of being busy with something else.

On Tuesday evening at about 5:45, I finished school. It had been a long day (as normal for a Tuesday). I had another scholarship application to work on, but my brain was rather tired, so I decided to take a 10-15 minute break. Now, usually, I would listen to some music and let my brain relax that way…but, since it was my last day on earth, I decided to go play Lincoln Logs with my little sister. We had a great 10 minutes together building a nice little Lincoln Log house with a cute fence, and when we were finished we both thanked each other for playing with each other. I enjoyed playing with her (I love Lincoln Logs too), and I was happy to have spent those 10 minutes with her doing something together. (Afterwards, I listened to one song and then got to work 🙂 )

On another day, I was eating dinner with my dad and my sister. Often, when my dad doesn’t start a conversation and I’m really hungry, I just focus on eating and don’t really engage with him much. But…since it was my last day and all that, I initiated a conversation and kept it going. It was nothing really deep or important, but we got to talk a bit (and since I’ve been incredibly busy we haven’t had much quality time together recently), and it was nice.

So it’s been little things like those with my family, and of course being sure to take time for MKMMA stuff and not let it get pushed to the side with everything else I have going on…but also in my general attitude.

I was driving home on Wednesday and I was feeling somewhat down…slightly irritated…just not in the best mood. I was listening to the radio, but they weren’t playing many of the songs I like, and of course I didn’t want to take my attention off the road and switch the channels. So there was no music to get me feeling better 😦 “BUT,” I said to myself, “I’m supposed to be living as if this is my last day! – So why would I keep feeling down on my last day? Come on now!” Soooo…I had a GREAT idea. I turned the music all the way down…and began reciting my DMP. That. Was. So. Much. FUN! It’s pretty much memorized, but on the parts that I couldn’t remember the exact wording, I just improvised. And, after I finished, I just kept talking…I still had some driving left, so I figured I’d just keep talking about my wonderful life and how amazing and fulfilled I felt every day…etc etc etc. That was a lot of fun 😀 I was driving home today and I tried doing the same thing with my Blueprint Builder…but for some reason that didn’t work as well, so I just ended up repeating my one-sentence DMP a few times. Still great though – even more reason to enjoy my solo drives! 🙂

Also! – I thought that reading obituaries would be depressing, but it’s actually kind of inspiring to read about these people and all the work that they did. For some reason being a high school coach doesn’t sound like a huge deal when you’re alive…if I asked someone what they did and they said, “Oh, I coach the JV soccer team.” I’d say “Ok” and not think too much about it. But reading about it in an obituary? It’s more like…”Whoa…the JV soccer team – think how many young lives they impacted and how many kids they worked with and inspired and taught discipline and maybe gave a love of this awesome sport?” There’s a line of a song by The Band Perry that comes to mind: “…funny when you’re dead how people start listenin'”.

But here’s another song that is great too:

I thought that at first it might be kind of morbid…but living as if this is the last day of my life is actually a lot of fun! – it makes everything more significant. All the important things – the ones that we know are important but are easy to push to the side – are more precious…and then unimportant things – the little squabbles, the distractions, etc…it’s easier for them to fade away. Living as if you’re dying really puts things into perspective. I know I’m going to love this month with this scroll!

Blogs are awesome. Seriously. Writing is great, because your thoughts are recorded and you can go back and look at them (and other people’s thoughts too).

I read a blog some weeks ago by another MKMMA member (I can’t remember who right now). She recommended that we go back and reread our previous blog posts. I thought it was a great idea and never got around to it…until now.

I just reread all of my blog posts. Wow. I had some great insights…I feel like I’ve been losing some of my previous enthusiasm…slacking off…I don’t like it. But rereading my blog posts and looking at all the hope and joy and success – that’s going to keep me going.

I like rereading Emerson a lot. It’s also been cool to reread the Master Key lessons. They impact me in two different ways: 1) “Yup I understand that now.” 2) “HOW did I forget that?! *facepalm* bad me.” So – good both ways hahaha.

I’m still developing – falling and getting up – but still persisting. I like being nature’s greatest miracle 🙂

WHOA. I can’t even express how happy I am right now…SO happy…I’m whole perfect strong loving harmonious and HAPPY!!!!

More manifestation happening…my gosh I’m…exuberant…thrilled…wow.

I’ve been reading my DMP and…it’s happening!!! *squeal of joy*

But a quick comment on the Master Keys lesson this week (17) – I completely relate to the section on intuition.

“Intuition arrives at conclusions without the aid of experience or memory. Intuition often solves problems that are beyond the grasp of the reasoning power. Intuition often comes with a suddenness that is startling; it reveals the truth for which we are searching, so directly that it seems to come from a higher power.”

There have been a few times when I’ve just KNOWN something was going to happen or had happened…and there’s no explanation for how I knew. It’s pretty crazy – but cool!

As for the concentration part of the lesson…well – I concentrate on my pieces, and I’ve been concentrating on this audition…and preparing…and look at me now!!!